Mixed Media Trees for Tu B’Shvat

Create colorful trees using a variety of materials for Tu B’Shvat!

The weather this winter has been crazy so far. One week it’s in single digits, and the next it’s 60 degrees! But no matter the weather, Tu B’Shvat is coming up. It’s like a little (mostly indoor) preview of all the flowering and blossoming yet to come as the spring approaches. And winter break was the perfect opportunity to spend some time getting ready.

For this project, we used a variety of materials (mixed media, in art lingo). We used what we had around, which is pompoms, buttons and crumpled tissue paper. You can use just about anything to create your trees. Send the kids on quick nature walk and collect leaves and sticks for a more realistic looking tree. Some other ideas include sequins or jewels, construction paper or wrapping paper cut into shapes, star stickers, and foam shapes.

We drew our background first and then pasted on our trees, but you could also glue on other materials for an even more textured result.

Looking for more Tu B’Shavt projects?
Toilet Paper Roll Trees for Tu B’Shvat

 

Time:
Active: 15 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using paint or glue

Age: 2-7

Materials:
Paper
Glue
Popsicle sticks
Something with which to create your trees – pompoms, buttons, crumpled tissue paper (see more ideas in the post above)
Crayons or markers to draw a background

Process:
Draw a nature scene on a sheet of paper, or glue one on.

Cut a popsicle stick in half to use as a tree trunk. Glue on and then add the top of your tree, using whatever materials you would like.

 

 

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

3-D Paper Hamantashen

Paper Hamantashen are almost good enough to eat!

Purim is just around the corner! We finally nailed down an idea for our mishloach manot and started buying supplies, and the kids decided on their costumes a while ago. But, I am not ready to start baking hamantashen just yet. And of course, the great filling debate. Call me a traditionalist, but I really like lekvar (prune jelly). Poppy – no thanks. Apricot and raspberry are good too, but when we use jelly, it always seems to ooze out the still-pinched corners. A friend recommended Solo pastry filling as a good alternative and I am going to scout out the store and give that a try this year. My husband’s family always used chocolate chips as fillings, but to me those end up dry because the chips don’t melt.

In order to push off the whole mess and debate, we made these fun paper hamantashen instead. If circles of dough fold to make a triangle, why not circles of paper? These are easily adaptable. We used our favorite dot paint to decorate the circles and pompoms as filling, but you could just as easily use crayons to decorate and crumpled tissue paper as fillings. Or honestly, you could go filling-free and just overlap the sides a little more.

These would adorable in mini, taped on to your Purim cards for mishloach manot!

Time:
Active: 15-20 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+

Age: 2-7

Materials:
Paper
Something with which to decorate the paper – paint, markers, crayons, etc.
Large or small pompoms
Glue
Scissors
Clear tape

Process:
Decorate your paper in any way you want. Don’t worry about making a specific picture, jsut make it look colorful! We used dot paints but anything will work.

Draw or trace a circle on the page. We made our circle almost big enough to cover the whole page, but any size will work!

Glue a large pompom in the center of the back side of you circle. You can use just one, or group a few. We found that only a small amount shows through so one was really enough but the kids enjoyed gluing little pompoms on top of the bigger ones as well.

Fold in your corners like a real hamantashen! Use clear tape to hold the sides together.

And there you have it, a paper hamantash!

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!